Guild Wars 2

So in my last post in this forum I was too aggressive I think with the way I tried to ask this question. But since I’m not a pro gamer or not very smart in the ways of balance I just want to ask the community a few questions:

1. What is INSERT PROFESSION’s role? What is it good at, and what does it lack.

I’m mostly interested in Necromancer, Engineer, Thief, Warrior and Mesmer.

2. Does stealth count as both an offensive and defensive mechanic and what other mechanic is similar to it?

3. Is any 1 class better at 1v1 or 1vX? And is there a class that is great at both? (in a single build)

So these are just a few questions. I might add some later but just to get an initial feel of what the community thought about these things I kept it brief. Thanks.

Hrm, I could say something about Mesmers, but I don’t do 1v1. That is, I enjoy others wanting to 1v1, because they’re easy targets for my GF and me baiting and then killing them (we only show one player initially, until a lot of CC is laid down to make sure the solo fighter cannot escape, then the second player joins and we finish them off).

1. Because of the Thief’s high mobility and the ability to engage and disengage quickly, they make excellent roamers. Personally, most of my time is spent capping and decapping, if I’m not assisting in a team fight. I also have a lot of fun with generally being a nuisance to the other team. (Thieves excel at that.)

2. Stealth is a unique mechanic in GW2, and the fact that it can be used both offensively and defensively is what makes it such an important survival tool for many Thieves.

3. The right build and player in any class can perform respectably in 1v1 or 1vX, but in my opinion the best dueling class is Mesmer, and the best class for 1vX is either Guardian or Engineer.

Imagi.4561:

1. Because of the Thief’s high mobility and the ability to engage and disengage quickly, they make excellent roamers. Personally, most of my time is spent capping and decapping, if I’m not assisting in a team fight. I also have a lot of fun with generally being a nuisance to the other team. (Thieves excel at that.)

2. Stealth is a unique mechanic in GW2, and the fact that it can be used both offensively and defensively is what makes it such an important survival tool for many Thieves.

3. The right build and player in any class can perform respectably in 1v1 or 1vX, but in my opinion the best dueling class is Mesmer, and the best class for 1vX is either Guardian or Engineer.

Agree with this, except for the 1vX part. Engineers do excel in that, more then any other class IMO (if you spec conditions), but guardians do not. They either lack the DPS or the survivability to 1vX as good as other professions can.

Aside from this, i can comment on warriors. They are actually good in pretty much every aspect of the game, without being the best at anything. Well, I guess they are the best world explorers.
Still, warrior performs quite well in all aspects, often ending up in the top three out of eight.

Necro is the survival specialist with tons of conditions to apply, tons of ways to remove them off self and even ways to convert them to boons, or boons to them (on enemies).

He has highest health of all professions (same base as warrior + death shroud). And quite a few ways to leech life as he attacks. To top that he can summon his minions that serve as either distractions, or meat shields.

necro’s weakness is rather lackluster ability to do aoe damage that is not condition based, and very short end of the stick when it comes to defending against CC or inflicting it yourself (except for fear, which he has in bulks).

Basically as a necro you wanna stack tons of conditions on enemies, let your minions do the mauling and throw in a few blows yourself (you can take quite a lot though) , but stay away from anything that can knock you down all day and night long.

I know that you will kill me but I think the closest mechanism to the stealth is the Leap, the Teleport and the Clones. While you are in stealth the enemy doesn’t know where are you for a few seconds.

The Clones can distract the enemy for a few seconds to find you.

The Leap is similar… You were there and now you are here.. or there… Every second counts. Leaping or Teleporting through an enemy yields valuable split-seconds. You know what’s going to happen. The enemy does not.

And I think all of the above mentioned can be used offensively or defensively.

Note: I’m not saying that the Leap or the Clones are anywhere near to the Stealth. Going invisible is a unique thing but I think the closest are what I mentioned…

Warrior’s role is to the best profession in:
1) PvP
2) WvW
3) PVE open world
4) PVE dungeons

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Necro is the survival specialist with tons of conditions to apply, tons of ways to remove them off self and even ways to convert them to boons, or boons to them (on enemies).

I wouldnt call necromancers survival specialists. While they can take alot of punishment with a high Lifeforce pool, theys lack things like blocks/invulnaerbale/vigor and not many ways to heal themselves (though ds can negate that problem to a certain extent if you equip enough lf generating skills/traits).

I would even say that, while much much more squishy, thieves have easier time to survive then necromancer (if they use their skills correctly), due how effective stealth and mobility is in this game.

inb4 Necro QQ… oh wait.

Anyway, Necromancers are debuffers. Whether through conditions or corrupting boons, they bring enemies down to their level and fight without the need of fancy icons all over their status bar. Everything tends to be slower, slower stacking of conditions, low burst, but it adds up over time and that’s when you find yourself losing.

The big weakness is losing the fight quickly. Lack of any reactive damage avoidance, very few ways to avoid CC, and generally slower gameplay are their big weaknesses. Note that I’m not trying to argue how well Necromancers perform in the current patch, but simply what we are supposed to be if all was cold and deathly.

2. Yes. You could consider teleports, high damage CC (fear/hammer warriors for example), and similar mechanics being similar, if not a bit better since stealth doesn’t actually defend you, only make you untargetable.

3. Its all about builds. Some Necro builds are amazing 1v1, some awful, same is true of everyone, and I don’t think there are any builds that can truly 1vX and 1v1 well. 1vX is a complete illusion and BS that people come up with when they beat a braindead group of uplevels in WvW and think its because they are the reincarnation of Bruce Lee. You only survive 1vX, you never win it against competent opponents. That said, Thief would be the closest due to their ability to quickly jump in and out of combat and use stealth to guarantee stomps, but that heavily relies on them facing bad players that lack a lot of very common mechanics.

Bhawb.7408:

2. Yes. You could consider teleports, high damage CC (fear/hammer warriors for example), and similar mechanics being similar, if not a bit better since stealth doesn’t actually defend you, only make you untargetable.

Almost true. I checked and being untargetable makes you completely immune to over 50 (IIRC, I know it was over 30) profession skills in the game, most of which are on Necro and Mesmer. Then there’s the functional immunity stealth grants from projectiles, small radius AoE around a target, and AI (not true immunity to most of these, but getting hit is dumb luck on your attacker’s part).

Fun fact: certain AI ignore stealth completely, attacking the target regardless (I find it unlikely they fixed this, but it was a while ago I tested it).

Yes it makes you functionally immune to a lot, but there is still a lot that not only continues through stealth, but just straight up ignores it completely. Its nice but very comparable to the other mechanics.

a t s e.9614:

Necromancer is crap at everything except Minion Master that is OK in 1v1 but still not viable against better players

I beg to differ. Power Necro is incredibly powerful 1v1. Necros suffer when it becomes a 1vx due to their susceptibility to CC. That’s not as much an issue in 1v1 scenarios, particularly with the amount of sustain a power spec has via Death Shroud.

They’re not used in high end tPvP because they’re so vulnerable in group fights.

Jackums.3496:

a t s e.9614:

Necromancer is crap at everything except Minion Master that is OK in 1v1 but still not viable against better players

I beg to differ. Power Necro is incredibly powerful 1v1. Necros suffer when it becomes a 1vx due to their susceptibility to CC. That’s not as much an issue in 1v1 scenarios, particularly with the amount of sustain a power spec has via Death Shroud.

They’re not used in high end tPvP because they’re so vulnerable in group fights.

I think the main problem for power necros (apart from the normal problems all necros have) is that they need more aoe on power weapons. While you can get aoe with wells (which are actually quite strong if used properly) you will miss out defensive utility skills (flesh wurm,sw or sarmor), which you desperately need as necromancer in spvp.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Necro is the survival specialist with tons of conditions to apply, tons of ways to remove them off self and even ways to convert them to boons, or boons to them (on enemies).

He has highest health of all professions (same base as warrior + death shroud). And quite a few ways to leech life as he attacks. To top that he can summon his minions that serve as either distractions, or meat shields.

necro’s weakness is rather lackluster ability to do aoe damage that is not condition based, and very short end of the stick when it comes to defending against CC or inflicting it yourself (except for fear, which he has in bulks).

Basically as a necro you wanna stack tons of conditions on enemies, let your minions do the mauling and throw in a few blows yourself (you can take quite a lot though) , but stay away from anything that can knock you down all day and night long.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is a person who has never played a Necromancer for more than couple hours.

From a PVE perspective.

Warrior
Pros: Good bulk and passive regen, good might stacking, unique damage buffs. Decent cleanse when built for it.
Cons: Lack of unique support mechanics

Guardian
Pros: A lot of projectile destruction/reflection, good boon support, good cleansing skills.
Cons: Glassy when things go wrong, light fields tend to overwrite more useful fields.

Engineer:
Pros: Can do nearly everything. Good combo fields and combo finishers. Powerful self buffer, and good at vulnerability stacking.
Cons: Hard to play, difficult to do high damage in, and weak to retaliation. Other people will hate you for playing engis.

Thief
Pros: Blinds and defensive utilities, stealth, and movement skills. High single target damage and CC.
Cons: Really glassy, utility becomes redundant with a second thief. No offensive buffs, and 900 maximum range.

Ranger:
Pros: Skill evades, a few unique buffs, and a few combo fields.
Cons: Pets. Melee weapons have awkward rooting mechanics, making them hard to play. People will hate you for playing ranger.

Ele:
Pros: Can do nearly anything, but not as much as engis. Great combo field + finisher synergy. Highest damaging class.
Cons: Glassiest class. Difficult to play.

Mesmer:
Pros: Unique utilities. Projectile reflection, and spots of cleanse and boon manipulation.
Cons: Low starting damage. Lacks buffs. Based around condi that is nigh useless in PVE. Ethereal fields overwrite more useful fields.

Necro
Pros: Massive bulk, decent boon manipulation, good movement debuffs and vulnerability.
Cons: Lack of melee cleave, lack of adequate range option, dark fields overwrite more useful fields, lack of finishers, high cooldowns on utilities. People will hate you for playing necro.

This is at a glance. This is not the full list of everything that a class can do, or every way to play them. If I were to rank the professions, I would list them as follows:

Top tier: (you’ll want more than one)
Ele, Guard

Mid Tier: (you’ll want at least one)
Engi, Thief, Mesmer, Warrior

Low Tier: (Charity cases and for lulz)
Ranger, Necro

Thedenofsin.7340:

Warrior’s role is to the best profession in:
1) PvP
2) WvW
3) PVE open world
4) PVE dungeons

Warrior’s role is to be THIRD best in all those situations. It’s also really easy to play, and are extremely powerful in the hands of/against Casual and Experienced Players – You know the type: They’ve mastered the basic mechanics of the game, don’t recognize that there’s a lot more to the game than just knowing what their skills do and how to move around, and are thus prone to being ‘outraged’ by what they see as Cheesing/Cheating. (It also makes up the bulk of all game communities, because there’s an order of magnitude of skill between going from Newbie, to Casual, to Experienced, to Expert, to Pro). However, in high-end play, it suffers because its Damage doesn’t scale as well, it doesn’t play as well with others, it telegraphs its attacks (In PvP), and the easy-to-learn tricks don’t pan out in high-level play.

There’s a term for this – Skill Gate character.

Jackums.3496:

They’re not used in high end tPvP because they’re so vulnerable in group fights.

Also slow rotations. Your team needs to be incredibly coordinated to make up for the fact that one of your players can’t move very quickly and you can’t really play a 3 point game.

Muchacho.2390:

I think the main problem for power necros (apart from the normal problems all necros have) is that they need more aoe on power weapons. While you can get aoe with wells (which are actually quite strong if used properly) you will miss out defensive utility skills (flesh wurm,sw or sarmor), which you desperately need as necromancer in spvp.

Our single target and AoE damage in PvP is just fine. Power builds tend to be focused towards single target in general anyway. The issue is you’ll die instantly in a coordinated team fight.

We need cleave for PvE, and active damage avoidance on utility skills for PvP.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

From a PVE perspective.

Warrior
Pros: Good bulk and passive regen, good might stacking, unique damage buffs. Decent cleanse when built for it.
Cons: Lack of unique support mechanics

What happened to banners? Empower Allies?

Bhawb.7408:

Our single target and AoE damage in PvP is just fine. Power builds tend to be focused towards single target in general anyway. The issue is you’ll die instantly in a coordinated team fight.

We need cleave for PvE, and active damage avoidance on utility skills for PvP.

Maybe, but when i play power necro and i dont take the wells, i feel i have no aoe and when i take the wells i feel i dont have enough things that keep me alive (fleshwurm, spectralwalk or spectral armor).

Tim.6450:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

From a PVE perspective.

Warrior
Pros: Good bulk and passive regen, good might stacking, unique damage buffs. Decent cleanse when built for it.
Cons: Lack of unique support mechanics

What happened to banners? Empower Allies?

I was referring to the cons, “lack of unique support mechanics”. Even if we remove offensive support, the warrior still has two unique support buffs namely banner of tactics/defense.